Hi folks,
I'm delighted to tell you that Frank Schulenburg has agreed to lead the Wikimedia
Foundation’s public outreach initiatives. This is terrific news, and will enable us, I
hope, to significantly increase our activities. In this role, he will work for the
Foundation part-time, and will report to me.
Many of you know Frank already. He first contributed to Wikipedia in 2005, and quickly
grew involved with the other projects as well. In 2006, he founded Wikipedia Academy, an
event aimed at increasing quality in the encyclopedia by encouraging contributions from
targeted groups, primarily in academia. Since 2006, he’s staged multiple Academies,
including our most recent ones in South Africa last November.
Also in 2006, Frank organized an exhibition documenting Wikipedia’s first five years, and
created the media literacy “Wikipedia at Schools” project. He created the Zedler medal for
distinguished encyclopedic contributions, awarded every year by Wikimedia Deutschland and
the Mainz Academy of Sciences and Literature. He has been a board member of Wikimedia
Deutschland since February 2006, and has served, since July 2007, as its vice chair. Prior
to this, he worked for the Göttingen State and University Library and for the Institute of
Economic History of the University of Göttingen.
Now, in his role as public outreach coordinator, Frank will stage more Wikipedia
Academies, and will develop and implement other strategies designed to encourage
contributions from targeted underrepresented groups – which may include, for example,
small-language speakers, people in developing nations, and older people. (Our general
survey, in development with UNU-Merit, will help us solidify the demographics we want to
target.) Frank will also design other outreach events, templates and support materials
aimed at raising public awareness and understanding of Wikimedia projects. In all of this,
he will work closely with the chapters.
I believe this move will strengthen the Foundation's relationship with Wikimedia
Deutschland, which is great. Wikimedia Deutschland is an important partner for the
Foundation. It was the first chapter to open an office and hire paid staff. It has
developed important business partnerships with organizations such as the publisher of the
German Wikipedia DVD and with der Spiegel, which has recently launched a knowledge portal
combining Wikipedia content with the complete Spiegel archive and the Bertelsmann
encyclopedia. Wikimedia Deutschland has also been a successful fundraiser, which has
enabled it to make significant financial contributions to the Amsterdam server cluster.
Please join me in thanking Wikimedia Deutschland for its support, and in welcoming Frank
to the Foundation.
Sue
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Hi Sue!
I'm delighted to tell you that Frank Schulenburg
has agreed to lead
the Wikimedia Foundation’s public outreach initiatives.
A wise and promising decision! Frank has proven that he is the best man
for the job and I'm happy that with your support he will have so many
new opportunities to use his talents.
I believe this move will strengthen the
Foundation's relationship
with Wikimedia Deutschland, which is great. Wikimedia Deutschland is
an important partner for the Foundation.
Thanks, and of course both is also true the other way round. We are
happy to announce that on its last meeting the board of Wikimedia
Deutschland has allocated up to 15,000 Euros for international outreach
activities. I'm sure we will use the money to realize promising concepts
to help foster the smaller projects with their big potential.
Kurt